this tab doesn't make sense

[jonny100]

first off, i need to tune my guitar down by a whole tone.....i tried to do this by doing the standard way of tuning 5th string to 6th string (5th fret), 4th string to 5th string (5th fret) etc.. but instead tuning to 3rd fret each time, and then 2nd fret on 3rd string.
is that right?
but then what do i tune the 6th string to?
how can I do that using an electronic tuner?

anyway, here is the tab: smokin in the boys room (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/m/motley_crue/smokin_in_the_boys_room_tab.htm)

am I right in thinking that the tab has been written upside-down? (look at the string notes down the side of the tab). isn't the 6th string normally the bottom line of the tab?

when i play the song it sounds afwul and out of key, especially the opening and verse.

any help would be appriciated.

[wild_axeman]

am I right in thinking that the tab has been written upside-down? (look at the string notes down the side of the tab). isn't the 6th string normally the bottom line of the tab?
Yup.Dude,that's pretty f***ed up right there!

[jonny100]

at least now i know it's not just me. lol
I tried playing it without down-tuning, but just moving everything down 2 frets, and pretending that the bottom line was the 6th string.........and it sounded fine!

so maybe i didn't down-tune correctly the first time round.

can I anyone tell me how to downtune easily and accuratly?

[luecke]

well, i dont have time to retune my gutiar right now and play the tab, but i dont think it is upside down. for the chorus, it has palm muting on the bottom two strings, which is very common. i doubt those parts would actually be played on the top two strings... so if that is the case, then i think the problem mostly lies in the fact that whoever wrote the tab called the tuning "drop d" ... which it is not. drop d would be if you left all the strings in standard tuning and dropped the low e string down to a d. im not really sure what to call that tuning, it appears to be some sort of open tuning or a mix between an open and a lowered tuning... i would suggest you just tune your guitar to the notes he gives and try it

which leads me to talk about how you are tuning your guitar... if you were trying to tune down an entire whole step without a tuner, you have to do it this way: on the low e string, play the 3rd fret and adjust the 5th string down to match this. now you should have everything in standard tuning, except the 5th string, which is down a whole step. now, since you still want the strings to have the same relations between them as standard tuning, you can tune all the strings based off this new 5th string. that means, you can tune the 4th string so that it matches with the 5th fret on the 5th string, then the 3rd string so that it matches with the 5th fret on the 4th string, and so on. dont forget to change the low e string so that the 5th fret on it matches with your 5 string ... in the end, you should be able to play the guitar with all your standard chord and scale shapes, and they should sound normal, just a little bit deeper ... you should note that when you make a dramatic tuning change like this without a tuner, it is not going to work perfectly. you can get all the strings to be in tune with themselves (if you go through them a couple of times), but they probably won't be at the exact notes that you think they are. you need to check it with a tuner.

now... none of that applies to the tuning for this tab, it was just to let you know. what you need to do for this tab, is use your tuner to tune the low string to D, then go from there. that means, you need to take the low string (now a D) and figure out where the note for the next string is on that low string. for example, since you want to tune the 5th string to A (which it should already be at...), you need to find A on the 6th string. it should be at the 7th fret if you are tuned down to D. then make sure your open 5th string matches with that 7th fret on the 6th string. to do this for all the strings in this case you need to tune these steps in order

- tune 6th string down to D
- match 5th string to 7th fret of 6th string (this should already match, but you need to check...)
- match 4th string to 8th fret of 5th string
- match 3rd string to 7th fret of 4th string
- match 2nd string to 7th fret of 3rd string
- match 1st string to 7th fret of 2nd string

these are pretty drastic changes, so like i said before, you need to run them over at least one more time to make sure they are really at the notes you want.

[jonny100]

thanks for that, i'll try that tomorrow. it looks like a was tuning incorrectly, so that's why it sounded awful.

about that tab. the actual tab is the correct way up, but it's the string notes down the left hand side that are upside down.